How to Use Delta Companion Certificates
Who doesn’t love getting 2-for-1 flights? I sure do. Delta offers this benefit to cardholders of either the Delta SkyMiles Platinum or Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express cards. Both of these cards provide you with a Delta Companion Certificate every account anniversary that can be worth $100s, far outweighing the annual fee. In this post we’ll detail how to search and book flights with your Delta Companion Certificate.
Updated 5/14/22: Details on using a Delta voucher / credit added below.
Delta Companion Cert Basics
The Delta Companion Certificates come in two flavors. The one you earn from the Delta SkyMiles Platinum cards allows you to book a companion for just the cost of taxes and fees when flying Main Cabin (L, U, T, X, and V fare classes). Both the business and personal Delta Platinum cards offer a companion certificate, and the benefit is identical.
The Delta SkyMiles Reserve cards (both personal and business) offer a certificate with even more flexibility. The Reserve version can book you into Main Cabin, Comfort+, or even First Class (I, Z, W, L, U, T, X, and V fare classes). You cannot use it to book Delta One, however.
All Delta Companion Certificates are only valid for travel within the lower 48 U.S. states unless you live in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the latter case, you can use them to book flights originating in those places to the lower 48 U.S. states. You cannot use a Delta Companion Certificate to book flights internationally.
You also have to hold your Delta credit card for at least a year, as you are awarded one companion certificate on each account anniversary. There is no option for earning more than one certificate, however nice that sort of benefit would be. When booking, you’ll pay no more than $75 in taxes and fees for your companion.
Step-by-Step Booking: How To Use A Delta Companion Certificate
To search and book a flight using your certificate, you’ll need to log into your account at delta.com. Unlike the Southwest Companion Pass, you cannot apply a companion certificate to a booking you’ve already made. You need to book both tickets at the same time, and your companion must be taking the exact same flights.
Navigate to My Profile and use the side menu to view any certificates that you have available. This is what you should see. If you have more than one like I do, you’ll be able to tell the difference between which card it is from.
But you don’t need to actually go here to book your travel. This is just to check the status of your certificates. To book using your Delta Companion Certificate, simply click Book. Click Advance Search. You’ll see a link at the bottom labeled Use Certificates, eCredits, or Delta Gift Cards.
You’ll then see your available certificates to use. Click the check box to the left, and then click the Continue button to search for flights.
You’ll then be taken to a search form that is set up specifically for Delta Companion Certificate use. It will be set to Round Trip and showing 2 Passengers. You just need need to fill in origin, destination, and dates. If you are using a Delta Reserve certificate, it will let you change the selection among Main Cabin, Comfort+, and First Class.
Only available flights in the fare classes bookable by the certificate will be shown. In my case, there wasn’t any Comfort+ space, but I can find First Class space.
You can select the flights you want and move on to finish booking. You’ll see the final total for two people, all taxes and fees included.
You Can Now Use Your Delta Credit / Vouchers With Companion Certificates
I (Mark) recently made a booking using my Delta Reserve companion certificate. I had $90 in credits from rebooking a flight that had the price drop. A nice new perk of the improvements Delta made since the pandemic. It was nice to see that using the certificate while using a companion certificate was now an option. In the past I don’t believe that is so.
It should be noted that you can not use a Delta eCredit and a Delta gift card or vice versa. Luckily both will trigger the charge the way you need it to in order to use the Amex airline incidental credits. You just can’t use both if you are sitting on a pile of gift cards too, which is mildly annoying.
Booking A Delta Companion Flight: Final Thoughts
Hopefully this walkthrough is helpful for showing you how to book using a Delta Companion Certificate. These certificates are one of the best perks of the Delta credit cards. Delta has been generous in extending their expiration period through the COVID-19 pandemic. Certificates earned over the past year and a half have been extended through June 30, 2022.
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